The Embassy of the United States of America in partnership with Queensland University of Technology Ambassador’s Innovation Roundtable

Thank you, Professor, for you kind introduction. I too acknowledge these distinguished citizens of the world – people whom I respectfully claim as my friends, the Ambassador of the United States of America, His Excellency Mr John Berry, Consul-General Mr Hugo Llorens and QUT Chancellor, Mr Tim Fairfax AC.

Your Excellency the Ambassador, as the representative here of Her Majesty The Queen of Australia, and on behalf of all Queenslanders, I am delighted to extend to you a warm Queensland welcome. In doing so, I also acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land where QUT now stands.

They were the original innovators, who first developed effective and sustainable management of the soils, water, and plant and animal resources of these lands. They accomplished that many thousands of years before European exploration and settlement.

Like those original Australians, the first Europeans were also innovators. They were forced, by isolation and distance, to be resourceful, and to find ingenious solutions to the problems posed by living half a world away from their familiar landscape, climate and institutions, those of Europe. I was honoured only a fortnight ago to visit the various memorials to Admiral Phillip in Bath in the United Kingdom.

I am thrilled now that Australia’s significant historical contribution to innovation - from the ancient to the more recent centuries - is being recognised through this series of Roundtables.

I am particularly pleased that Brisbane has been included in this national program, alongside Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth.

It is good that the Embassy has been able to partner with the Queensland University of Technology to conduct the Roundtable for our State in this exceptional space in one of our city’s most innovative buildings.

Indeed it’s difficult to imagine a more fitting venue for this event than here on the top floor of this Science and Engineering Centre, and as Professor Dickenson suggested, I do hope all visitors take the opportunity (if you have not already done so) to explore some of the many truly ground-breaking features of this Centre, particularly the extraordinary, and interactive, two-storey Cube.

Kaye and I brought two of our grandchildren here about 3 months ago. I was in a sort of no-man’s land: a former Chief Justice, a Governor-Designate. One regret was that no one took up my express invitation to call me, not ‘Chief Justice’, not ‘Sir’, but ‘Paul’: how egalitarian are we?

But that Saturday bore, for us, both historical and contemporary aspects. The historical was capped off with lamingtons in Old Government House. The contemporary evoked irrepressible delight in our grandchildren’s interactions with the wall – creative, expansive, infectious.

A lot of today’s endeavour is about capturing young, innovative imaginations, maybe not quite so young as those, but certainly formative intellects and imaginations. And the “incipient adult” should never be underestimated.

Professor Coaldrake, as Vice Chancellor, is justifiably proud of this Centre, not only because of its state-of-the-art facilities, but because it is a learning space for the entire community, whether they be researchers, university or school students, industry representatives, our fellow citizens.

It is that implicit acknowledgement of the importance of building and strengthening the connections between those many parts of the community, that makes this Centre a completely appropriate venue for an event which brings those sectors together, in one place, to build new contacts and relationships.

Today affords an excellent opportunity for us to consider case studies of what is already happening in terms of collaborative innovation, particularly between the US and Australia. We may consider as well, the challenges of commercialising innovative advances. But, perhaps most importantly, this sort of forum focusses a very bright spotlight on the dilemma confronting both our nations: declining interest in education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Rebuilding and strengthening our knowledge infrastructure has become a priority for Australia, particularly in those STEM areas. They are the subjects in which our students need to develop skills and confidence, if they are to have an adequate ‘tool box’ to implement their clever ideas and, ultimately, commercialise them.

It is the fact that our best and brightest scientists, mathematicians and engineers are, in most cases, less attracted by teaching than by the higher salaries and other rewards offered by the private sector. We have to work around that if we are to maintain our legendary reputation as a progressive nation.

We are a nation which produced some of the most successful innovations of earlier centuries, from the boomerang and the woomera to the stump-jump-plough, the Hills hoist, and the bionic ear; if we are to maintain that level of achievement, then we need to ensure that our schools have an assured supply of quality teachers, and that our universities have the sorts of lecturers and tutors who can challenge and inspire their students, and that our training institutions are in truth producing a next generation of thinkers and innovators.

Your Excellency, when interviewed by the respected Michelle Grattan, at the time the Roundtable series was launched in July, you spoke of those boys and girls, in both our countries, who are ‘creating miracles’ in places like their humble backyards, through their own testing and trialling. It is a memorable image, one we should all bear in mind as this day unfolds. They are our future. Theirs are the minds which will conceive and implement the ingenious solutions which our world already needs to be sustainable, and will need even more as this new century unfolds.

I respectfully congratulate the Ambassador, the Embassy, and QUT, on this excellent and timely initiative. I trust the time spent together today will be not only satisfying and inspiring, but that it may provoke many more of those ‘miracles’ of the future.